


Prophecies of Pythia

by seepingout



Category: Terminator - All Media Types
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:55:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21912529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seepingout/pseuds/seepingout
Summary: This has happened before. It will happen again.
Relationships: Grace/Dani Ramos
Comments: 11
Kudos: 119





	Prophecies of Pythia

She vaguely recognizes the augmented soldier standing in front of her, volunteering to go die for her in the past. She thinks she rescued the woman herself, as a teenager? The shaggy blonde hair and tallness seems familiar. Back when she was first organizing a militia she thinks. She's seen the other woman before, on a few missions she went out into the field for, has been told that she already owes her life to this woman, but she can't imagine why the woman is here. Maybe a sense of debt from the first meeting she barely remembers? She has no doubt, if her memory is correct, that the meeting was the kind to leave an impression on the younger woman even if it was just one of many for her.

Others have volunteered, but there is something in this one's eyes. A fervor, a drive, that the others who have stood in front of her haven't had. That several have volunteered was enough to convince her saving her younger self was a worthwhile pursuit, even if she's tired enough and sore enough that she did, for a moment, entertain the thought of not sending someone back. Let someone else be the savior of humanity. 

She's not going to do that. So, she nods and glance at her lieutenant who nods back in confirmation. He'll make the arrangements from here and he does, beginning to fill out the paperwork. She's not sure why they have paperwork in the apocalypse, but they do.

She turns back to the augment, gives her a small, hopefully thankful looking smile. "Thank you. I appreciate it."

"Commander."

She dismisses the woman and waits for the door to close before turning to her second. "She knows its a one way trip?"

"Yes Commander." 

"She knows she'll be going back with no weapons, no support?"

"Yes Commander."

She nods tiredly, feeling a tiny bit better about signing a loyal soldier's death certificate. 

As if in response to her thoughts, her second slides the paperwork onto the desk in front of her. Confirmation of her selection, confirmation they are going to use the time machine, and yes, a death certificate. 

She hates the thought of sacrificing anyone, but this is war, this is survival, this is for the species. This is, sadly, old hat.

She signs the forms, pauses at the death certificate. "Huh, she doesn't look like a Grace." She shrugs, signs the paper, and hands it back.

\---

She introduces herself to the boy? girl? she just rescued. Starvation and a layer of grime, as well as multiple layers of clothing, hide the obvious identifying features.

"Grace. My name is Grace."

She feels her grin falter and reaches out to push down the girl's hood. It is Grace. Her Grace. She'd known she had rescued the woman that had saved her, but the shock of it still froze her for a moment.

She mentally shook it off and smiled at the girl again, nodding slightly. "Grace."

Years pass. She trains the teenager herself. She doesn't know if she's doing it to keep Grace from going back or to make sure Grace has a chance to live if/when she has to send her back. When she met Grace the first time, her protector had told her about a hero, a general, someone she would follow into hell, but not someone she knew.

Grace looks like she remembers. Without the augmentation scars. She's not sure if that means she has changed things or if however Grace became an augment is looming followed by sending her back. If so, she's running out of time. They don't have enough thorium to give any augments two power sources. And all the simulations the doctors have run indicate that its not really an option anyways. Thorium reactors are power sources, not batteries. Two units is too many, the excess power has to go somewhere and with the subdermal mesh and metal alloys reinforcing or replacing the skeletal structure, that power ends up cooking. 

There's a mission, a time machine, a nasty head wound, and she's waking up to a report of what happened after she was knocked out. She has three cracked ribs, was in a coma for four days, will have a very impressive scar across her forehead, and Grace nearly died to protect her and ended up in augmentation surgery.

She hates time travel. 

Grace is begging her. She's volunteering to go back and save Dani. Repay her for saving her, raising her, giving her purpose and family. 

She knows she'd already sent Grace back, will send her back again. She knows Grace, the woman will sneak or fight her way to the machine and end up in the past no matter what she says. She can see it in her former ward's eyes, Grace didn't trust anyone else with Dani's life. 

That dedication had been why she'd fallen in love with her protector in their short time together. She'd pushed it down, ignored it until it went away, the years between that chaotic couple of days and now had done their job. Grace had never been her child, but she also wasn't anything more than a friend now. But now, out of time, it all came rushing back. The affection yes, but mainly the pain. Sending Grace back is devastation. The original loss, the pending loss. She can't do it. She will do it. She nods.

The relief in Grace's eyes just makes it hurt more.

\---

Her smile falters when she hears the girl's name. Its Grace, her Grace. Now that she knows to look, she recognizes both the girl she swore to save in the past and the woman she would grow up to be under the layer of dirt.

She doesn't know if she can do this. Again, she knows it's again. Grace, in the past, had told her she'd raised her. The look her protector had given her while saying this had implied more saviour and mentor and constant than mother. Looking at young Grace now, she understands why. She's 15, maybe 16 already. Judgement Day was four years ago. She knows, because she remembers everything Grace had told her back then, that she'd survived at least three years on her own. The eyes looking back at her aren't those of a girl needing a parent. They're of a survivor needing something to live for. She can do that.

After a few months they talk. Grace wants to be a soldier. Of course. She sends her away to train, they have a facility outside of what used to be Vancouver. Vancouver is rubble, but the forests around it provide food, challenges, and cover for the training facility Sarah had helped her set up there. Her and Sarah had taken advantage of the tiny home and self-sufficiency trends to set up off-grid bases and farms, originally occupied by hipsters and "back to basics" enthusiasts they didn't give the real reason to. When the world ended they had places with power, clean water, and a food supply. Not enough to support an army, but a good start to keeping people alive. Its amazing how quickly people re-civilize with food in their belly.

Grace is in Vancouver for a year. When she comes back her delayed puberty has hit her hard. Again, amazing what a stable diet can do for people. She's still a kid, but she's also clearly not. 

When she's "home" she spends time with Grace. She's not home much. 

Dani has to leave to attend to a facility in Alabama. Her people call them Bubbas. Rednecks who had enough personal firepower and love of an excuse to use it to have survived just fine without her. Also rural enough her offer of food didn't mean much. She'd love to leave them to their own devices but this is survival, coordination is the only way to a long term future and this has to be in person or they'll follow through on their threat to leave her army.

Then its the rest of the American south, a brief stint in her home country, and then eastern Canada.

Then, blissfully, she gets her time with Grace. 

Its been three years and Grace is now Grace. Three years of checking in, the occasional chat, but not much more and there's familiarity but not family between them. 

They've flipped roles. When they first met, when Grace came back to the past, she was 30 or so and Dani was the 21yr old with a burning hunger for her far too attractive protector that had a wonderfully annoying habit of pressing her full length against Dani when acting as a human shield. Now Dani is in her early 30s and Grace isn't socially aware enough to know how to hide her crush.

Her seconds tease her about it. She shuts them down. And then they have a win. A big one. The moonshine she officially doesn't know about flows and the afternoon after the party she wakes up to a naked Grace wrapped around her.

She's not complaining. At all. But she knows she has maybe ten years to make this be the reason Grace doesn't go back to save her. To die. She suspects this will just become the reason Grace does go back.

The years pass, they love, they marry, and she comes to hate herself for being right. 

Grace nearly dies to protect her from the terminators, gets augmented, and begs to go back in time to protect her then. Again.

She wonders what it will take to stop Grace. She certainly can't figure out how to save her. Back up power source is out. Thorium is the only thing powerful enough to run the augmentations, too powerful to use two. She hopes the training is enough. She knows it isn't.

She gives Grace the tattoo for Carl's cabin. Again. And she writes herself a small note, leaves plenty of space, and has it implanted in Grace's forearm, above the protective mesh. Right next to where she remembers a length of rebar shredded flesh during a chase on the freeway.

She tells Grace to give her younger self the note, when they have a still moment and aren't in immediate danger. She knows it will be in a dirty motel room after exchanging stories with Sarah.

She kisses Grace goodbye and sends her back.

She almost eats her gun. Almost.

\---

She's in a dirty motel, a woman named Sarah Connor has just told a miserable story and she has a miserable life to look forward to. Her far too attractive more-than-human protector has just given her a folded note she pulled from her arm and gone outside to talk to Sarah. Giving her a chance to read in private or to get in a pissing contest with Sarah again, she doesn't know. As she reads the note she no longer cares.

Its from her. Future her. "Haven't figured out how to save her, can't stop her. Before me mentored her. I loved her." There's plenty of space left on the paper. Well, not paper. The words are clear despite the contact with the rebar and whatever the orange stuff Grace bleeds is. 

Its a record. And a mission. Save Grace, or figure out how to stop her from coming back. She may be new to this getting chased by robots thing but she isn't stupid. Grace is going to die. Because they've been here before and Grace has died. Will die. She hates time travel. 

She'll live, despite the odds against it, but it will cost Grace her life. The note doesn't say how. The empty space tells her this is the first time she has sent herself this note. She wonders if this changes things enough that she won't survive. 

She hates time travel. 

She lives. Grace doesn't.

\---

She saves a young Grace. She has a decision to make. She's been a mentor, she's been a lover. She chooses distance.

It doesn't work.

\---

She's sitting in a dirty motel. Sarah and Grace are outside and she's reading a letter. Three options tried. Nothing worked. She'll live, Grace will die. This woman who crashed into her life and did something to her libido even in the face of horrifying death is clearly someone she will love. Has loved. Enough to try and not love to save her life.

She wonders why Grace won't stay in the future. Are things really so bad she'd chose certain death over staying with Dani? She clearly loves Dani enough to come back, why doesn't she love her enough not to. She glances out of the window at her two bickering protectors and it clicks. Its not a lack of love. Its just who Grace is. 

Now she just has to figure out how to save her. 

She asks how Legion comes to be. Maybe they can do what Sarah did, stop it before it begins. Grace doesn't know. Apparently nobody does, classified government project, announced as the answer to cyber-warfare, the next day Legion turns everything off. By the time she organizes humanity enough to fight back, Legion deleted all records that detailed how it came to be.

Sarah has explosives. Conspiracy theorists have a list of top secret government computer facilities. They pull a few fire alarms, blow up a few buildings.

The Rev-9 catches up to them. She lives, Grace dies.

\---

She doesn't want to find Grace. Maybe if they never meet, Grace never dies for her.

\---

She hears a scuffle, debates sending her soldiers in instead of herself but an HK flies overhead and she knows she doesn't have a choice. None of her people capable of talking through a situation are here, it has to be her.

It's Grace. Of course it is. 

She doesn't know how to proceed. She can't just leave the girl. Now that she has lived through this she has a good idea what the girl has gone through to survive this long. Why she wears layers to hide any curves she may have. Why she's chopped at her hair to keep it shorter. Why she has a knife in her hand where her attackers didn't see it but Dani's trained eye does.

Mentored, loved, ignored. She would try mother but Grace is too close to adulthood, she's too in love, and she knows it won't make a difference.

She's been thinking, researching since that day in the motel with a folded note in her hands, about how to save Grace. The augmentations were pretty advanced, the answer doesn't lie there. 

This isn't the time. She extends her hand to Grace.

She'll see what happens.

It doesn't matter because now that they've met, Grace will go back. Because she will always go back.

\---

When the time comes she kisses Grace goodbye, sends her back, and walks out of the base.

She never makes it back.

\---

She's sitting in a dirty motel reading a note from her future self. Multiple future selves. She'd asked Grace if she knew what was on the paper she'd carried in her arm from the future. She didn't. 

Mentored, loved, ignored. Tried to stop Legion's creation. There's a second thorium reactor, in a protective case, next to the first. That's the most recent, she wonders what it means.

\---

They're at a dam, Grace is crashing, her thorium reactor can stop the Rev-9, fry it at close range. Sarah is asking how to get it out without killing Grace. At the empty look in Grace's eyes, the note suddenly makes sense.

Carl arrives, they get through the door, they fight, there's an explosion. Sarah is walking towards the destroyed engine. The Rev-9 isn't dead, she knows it even before Sarah says it. Grace is begging her to take the power source, to carve her open with a piece of shrapnel. 

She thinks of the letter, she begins to cut. "I'm sorry." Even if this works, this has to be horribly painful.

Grace struggles out two words while Dani's hand is flailing in her guts. "I'm not."

Her hands close around something, small, feels like a case. Doesn't tingle like what she suspects is Grace's installed reactor. She pulls it out.

Grace, through her pain, looks surprised. "Dani?!"

It takes a precious few seconds for her to figure out how to open the case, she hears Sarah firing her shotgun, and then she has the thorium reactor free and in her hand. 

Grace is staring at it in shock. "I had another?"

Dani nods and leans over to kiss the other woman, tears of relief falling. "Wait here."

Sarah is unconscious on the ground as she rushes the hobbled terminator. She tries to jam the reactor into its eye but it is still strong enough to stop her. There's a struggle, its choking her, the reactor just out of reach.

Suddenly Carl is there, falling apart but pulling the Rev-9 off of her. She grabs the reactor and shoves it into the Rev's head. It immediately sparks and she scrambles away. She knows she should watch it die, but Sarah is struggling to her feet, she can do that, she needs to get back to Grace.

She stumbles back to where she'd left the other woman, dropping to her knees when she reaches her.

Grace is still confused. And still bleeding. "I had a backup?"

Dani nods. "From future me"

"We don't have the resources for spares."

"Apparently she thought you were worth it. I think you're worth it." Grace is still bleeding, its dark orange, but she's pretty sure Grace still can't afford to lose too much of it. 

"We should go, the explosion ..."

She cuts Grace off. "I can't move you myself, and I have to do something about the hole I cut into you."

"No, save yourself. You have to get out of the blast range."

As if on cue, they hear the static and crackle of electrical discharge and wait, but it doesn't reach them. Grace sighs in relief.

Dani continues assessing Grace's injuries. She doesn't have supplies or medical traning, and it looks very bad. She remembers hearing about putting pressure on wounds, so she restrap's Grace's tactical vest down, as tightly as she dares. Grace will need a shot too, she's sure of it. She hears a noise behind her.

She whirls around, its Sarah. 

The older woman nods. "Its dead." She shifts her focus to Grace. "And somehow you're not. Tell me later, we gotta get out of here before emergency services shows up."

They steal a car and pass fire trucks and police vehicles as they drive away. No one stops them, too intent on getting to the dam and the remains of the plane still burning next to it.

\---

They're in another dirty motel. Sarah is in the shower, Grace is laid out on the bed, bandaged with some rough stitching closing her stomach up, but not much else. Sarah knows how to close a bullet hole or a cut from a knife, but not how to deal with a baseball bat diameter stab wound through someone's internal organs much less a fist sized, jagged cut two inches next to it. 

Dani desperately wants to take her to a hospital but knows they can't. Sarah suggested cleaning up and then invading a veterinary office.

So Sarah showers quickly, then Dani showers quickly, and they take over a vet's office and force the doctor who had stayed late to finish up paperwork to work on Grace.

She dies on the table.

Dani screams.

\---

She's sitting in a dirty hotel room reading a dirty note feeling the weight of the world and her brother's death and her father's death and Grace's death. Grace is outside talking with, arguing with Sarah. She doesn't care which.

She has to survive, she knows that. She understands, she does. The needs of the many, blah blah, she's watched the Star Trek movies. 

She looks back at the note hanging limply in her hand. She doesn't understand, she supposes she will as time goes on. There's an arrow pointing at the second to last line and the last line reads "Sacrifice Carl."

She doesn't know who Carl is, doesn't want to sacrifice anyone, but she understands that Grace is more important to her future self. 

\---

When Carl turns out to be a terminator she almost cries in relief. It sours as she watches him with his family. She has the impression he'll die anyways, but he's human enough, cares enough, that it hurts.

\---

Grace is crashing, Carl suddenly appears, they get through the door and are in the guts of a dam.

It will be their killbox. She's tired as she watches Sarah and Carl walk forward and holds out a hand to stop Grace.

Her protector looks at her quizzically.

She sighs in resignation. "The note you gave me."

Grace nods. "I don't know what it says."

"When the time comes, let go of Carl."

Grace stares at her. "What?"

"It says sacrifice Carl."

"Dani ...

She cuts Grace off. "Please Grace. That's all it says. When the time comes, please. Just do it."

Grace nods slowly and turns to follow the others, grabbing a chain from a table and wrapping it around her arm.

Dani prays.

\---

Grace and Carl drag the Rev-9 into the whirling whatever it is, she doesn't care so long as it works. Carl is stuck. She sees Grace's eyes widen as she instinctively reaches for Carl's arm and then stops. Grace shouts out an apology as she turns and runs towards Dani, who is herself scrambling backwards on all fours as fast as she can, she'd stand and turn but can't quite get her limbs to coordinate enough for that. She's vaguely aware of Sarah doing the same to her side.

There's an explosion and she sees Grace's body fly over her but can't hear or see anything else as the explosion reaches her and pushes her back.

She doesn't think she lost consciousness, but the explosion is over and Sarah is getting to her feet. She sits up and sees the woman take a step towards the now destroyed mechanism. She shakes her head to clear it.

She pushes herself to her feet, desperately scanning the rubble for any sign of Grace. She sees the woman laid out and not moving and rushes towards her as fast as she can.

She drops to her knees beside the other woman and pulls at her side until she is on her back. There's orange fluid seeping out and she pulls at the tactical vest's straps so she can see how badly Grace is hurt.

There's a large hole in the woman's side but that appears to be the only damage. 

Grace wakes up just as Sarah shouts that the terminator isn't dead.

"Dani, Dani, my power source." She grabs at Dani's hands

She knows there is a spare so she doesn't argue. "Where?"

"Here." She tugs Dani's hand to her stomach, two inches in from where the Rev-9 had stabbed her. "You need something to cut into me." Grace tries to sit up, turning her head to look around.

"No, Grace." Dani isn't causing her any more damage if she can help it. "How deep, what is it next to?"

"Just center of where my kidney would be."

That's a horrifying statement she doesn't have time to dwell on right now. "Ok. Ok." She reaches into the hole already in Grace's abdomen and turns her hand inward. She's never been so glad to be so small in her life. There's a lot less inside Grace than she remembers humans having from her biology classes in school. Dimly she makes a note to be sick about it later. She knows she will be sick about it later. 

Her hand grazes something that sends tingles up her arm. Probably the reactor running Grace. She reaches just past and brushes against something hard. She gets her fingers around it and pulls it out as slowly as she dares. 

Grace is staring at the case in shock. "A second unit?"

Sarah has opened fire, there isn't time. It takes her a couple seconds to get the thing open and pull out the reactor. She gives Grace a grim smile and turns to rush the terminator.

They struggle and it knocks the reactor from her hand and grabs her by the throat. It's still enough taller than her to hold her off the ground, keeping her from getting any purchase to free herself from its grip.

There's black creeping around the edges of her vision when suddenly she drops and gasps for air. Grace is standing above her, and she can hear the static of electricity arcing. She watches Grace push the damaged Rev-9 back towards a pit and throw him down it. 

She struggles to stand and stumbles over to join Grace at the edge of the pit. She hears a noise and turns quickly to see Sarah join them. 

They stand, at the edge of the pit, and watch the reactor's charge arc and melt metal. The Rev-9 struggles to push itself up and she has to put a hand on Grace, knowing her protector is about to jump down to hold it there.

There's a screeching noise and Sarah curses and they all turn towards it. Carl. Somehow still moving, although he is little more than a metallic head stuck to a torso with a raggedy shirt and raggedy flesh barely covering one side.

He turns to look at them, focusing on Sarah. "For John."

With that he drags himself over the side of the pit, landing on the almost standing Rev-9. 

They watch as the terminators burn and melt, the smell of cooking flesh wafting up as Carl, through weight alone, keeps the Legion terminator in place.

And then, its done. 

Sarah turns away first. "We should be gone before emergency services gets here."

Grace nods and turns to Dani, gently turning her away from the pit to follow Sarah.

Dani lets her, numb with the weight of it. She's alive. Grace is alive. Grace has a large hole in her side that Dani went rummaging through.

At her insistence, they wait for emergency services to arrive and rush inside then Sarah steals an ambulance and they drive away.

\---

She's sitting in a dirty motel. Again. Grace is propped up on the bed with a mirror while she and Sarah combine their emergency medical knowledge to figure out what she needs to be healed. 

"Dani, can you sew?"

"What? Can I what?" 

"Sew?"

"Ummm, not really."

Sarah grunts. "Guess you're stuck with me kid."

"Why do you need to know if I can sew?"

Grace looks up from inspecting her wound in the mirror. "I'm bleeding internally, we have to sew it shut and then stitch my skin closed and then the augments should be able to handle it from there."

"Oh." That reminds her of what she didn't have time to dwell on at the dam. Grace doesn't have kidneys anymore. Grace doesn't have a lot of herself anymore. Because of her. She was, is going to be the Commander. She approves the augment program. She did that to Grace. She was right, she is going to be sick. She rushes to the bathroom and vomits into the toilet. 

She hasn't eaten much the last couple of days, too stressed even when they had the opportunity, and she's dry heaving in short order. She knows she is worrying Grace but she can't stop her stomach from rebelling long enough to do anything about it. She can hear Sarah's voice from the other room, but can't focus enough to make out what she is saying. 

When she finally stops, she slowly straightens, flushes the toilet and goes to the sink. She rinses out her mouth and splashes water on her face before looking at herself in the mirror. She's gaunt, pale. She's going to crash soon. They've been running on adrenaline and she's out. 

She turns and re-enters the main part of the room, glancing at the bed. Sarah is sat, hunched over Grace's stomach and quietly cursing, but her hands are moving, working thread. She's glad the older woman blocks her view. 

Grace catches her eye above the other woman's head. "You ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, I just ..."

Grace shakes her head. "Its been crazy, it was bound to hit you."

That sounds like Sarah. Too understanding of what she's gone through, having lived it herself, although softened with Grace's protectiveness towards her.

"No, its ..." How to explain it. "Its you, your augmentation."

She hates the way Grace's face falls and shakes her head. "You don't have kidneys anymore, you don't have a lot of you anymore. How much of you did you give up for me? How could I love you enough to send myself a note about trying to save you and then cut that much out of you?"

"I volunteered for augmentation."

"To protect me."

"Yes. Because I love you enough to do whatever it takes to keep you safe."

Sarah straightens. "Lotta talk of love in here, should I leave you two alone?"

She sighs. "Just finish healing her Sarah, please."

Sarah's snort in response could politely be called sarcastic.

\---

She's sitting on a porch on a small cabin in southeastern Washington state. Its raining, more a heavy mist really. The radio is playing, her main source of Spanish these days. There's a fire going inside, the wood fired stove providing heat and cooking the stew she'd thrown together earlier that day. 

Some of the other smallholders in the "experimental green village" they've founded should be by for dinner in a couple hours.

Technically its a nature preserve. Purchased through an offshore bank that doesn't keep its records on internet linked systems, owned by one of Sarah's shell companies. Everything built by hand by the community, no structures visible from the air. Energy comes from hydroelectric, set up to take advantage of the constant rain and the stream nearby. Water comes from rain catchment. 

She's not sure when Judgement Day will come. Sarah is out blowing stuff up while she handles subtly building survival networks like this one. Their respective duties suit them. 

She hears a noise, tries to peer through the rain. A tall figure approaches, finally coalescing into Grace. The other woman is grinning.

"Success?"

"Yup! The digester is fixed. We'll have gas to burn for cooking and power when our needs outstrip the hydro. Compost and fertilizer for crops."

She nods. "Good. Armies march on their stomachs." Speaking of Judgement Day. "How long?"

"A couple months. If Sarah doesn't get lucky and blow up an important building."

She nods. They'll see how it goes. She stands up, stretching to give the other woman a kiss. She wrinkles her face in disgust. "You stink."

Grace laughs. "I was working on a digester."

She sends the woman inside to shower and sits back down, reaching into the pocket of her hoodie to graze her fingers against not-paper.

She kept the note because she has to keep the note. Sarah thought she broke her loop and still lost her son to an erased future and terminators still came back.

She may rewrite it. She knows what works now, but it working may have changed things. But for now, its what she has, its what worked.

She lived, Grace lived.

She's done sitting. She goes inside and quickly sheds her clothes, walking into the bathroom. Grace almost punches her on instinct when she startles the other woman by pulling the shower curtain back. She steps in and slides her arms around the taller woman's waist. "Sorry."

Grace grins down at her, sliding a hand down to rest on the curve of her ass. "I'm not."


End file.
